Whale Watching Report

Our resident pods swam north to the Frazier River last night so we planned to look for them up north today. Just a few minutes into our trip we spotted two harbor seals resting quietly on some rocks just outside the breakwater at Cap Sante Marina. Just as we entered Georgia Strait we came across a pod with many harbor porpoises. They were very cooperative so we circled around to watch them a second time. All three pods of resident orcas were swimming southward from Point Roberts when we reached them. They seemed to be formed into three distinct groups. We decided to start with the southernmost pod which consisted of mostly J-pod orcas. We saw J1, Ruffles, J2, Granny, J8 Speiden, J26, Mike, J16, Slick, J33, Keet, J36, Alki, J42, Echo, J27, blackberry, J28, Polaris, and many others. Slick's family was off on their own but soon joined back up with the rest of the pod. Granny and Ruffles were in the lead. Our first fifteen minutes of viewing were probably the most spectacular as the water was like glass, and the light shimmered of the water as the orcas surfaced together. We could see K-pod and L-pod orcas further away. At times we saw orcas spy hop, cartwheel, and tail slap during our visit. The young calves were being mischievous at times playing away from their mother's watch. Just before leaving the orcas Captain Shane shut off the engines so our passengers could hear the orcas blow at the surface. We could even hear the orcas breathing way off in the distance because it was so calm. Next Shane decided to cruise slowly around Sucia Island so we could get a close up look at it's spectacular shoreline that is blessed with a multitude of sculpted rock formations. We were hoping to find a bald eagle, but we had no luck today. We did spot other wildlife such as red-necked phalaropes, all three cormorant species, common murres, great blue herons, glaucous-winged gulls, and Heermann's gulls. Naturalist Bart Rulon